Label : Various Artists
Fourth installment in our split 7” series, God Damn I Hate the Blues , presents splendid new work from Amen Dunes, Marisa Anderson, Ignatz, Nathan Bowles, Warm Climate and Bridget Hayden.
Damon McMahon comes up with a brilliant interpretation of an old Ethiopique traditional, blending his typical Amen Dunes style with a far-out etnic melody.
Those who have heard Marisa Anderson’s ‘The Golden Hour’ know what to expect: in the vein of her lp, her contribution ‘Heat Lap’ is a rough and moving delta styled improvisation on lap steel.
Our hero Ignatz keeps on surprizing. After his fourth album ‘I Hate This City’ he started to focus on country music. ‘She Gets All She Wants’ is the result. Probably one of his most melodic workouts to date. Different from all his previous work and yet again so recognizably Ignatz.
Also Bridget Hayden presents a new side of her work. No drilling drone-riffs here but a hazey folk song, putting the Robert Burns poem ‘Aye Fond Kiss’ to music, with her guitar and voice drenched in reverb.
Nathan Bowles is one of the three Black Twig Pickers. He dreams about Alabama girls alot. Classic style banjo core.
Warm Climate is Seth Kasselman and his band. ‘Tourmaline Witches’ appeared on the ‘Pigeon Brides Weigh In’ cassette on Stunned Records. Seth jams like Bobb Trimble on acid, or Marc Bolan on ketamine. Seth doesn’t like Bobb Trimble, but we like Seth all the same.
K059
7 inch
Sold Out/Not available
On July 6th 2009 KRAAK set up a show at Kung Fu Necktie. The Flemish Primitives met the Philly Elite: Jack Rose, Meg Baird, Kurt Vile and U.S. Girls.
KRAAK loves Philadelphia. In recent years Marshall Allen, Bardo Pond, Espers, Clockcleaner, Fern Knight and many other artists climbed the KRAAK stage. With some of them we developed a modern internet relationship. As if we were young lovers we decided to fly over to their side of the water for an evening of cheese steaks, Rocky Balboa and live music. On July 6th 2009 KRAAK set up a show at Kung Fu Necktie. The Flemish Primitives met the Philly Elite: Jack Rose, Meg Baird, Kurt Vile and U.S. Girls. To celebrate our love we also pressed this very awesome 7” with four exclusive tracks!
Master finger picker JACK ROSE is the mastodont of Philadelphia. His mix of drone infused raags, bluegrass and acoustic folk is as sweet as a crate of Saison Dupont. “mr. Rose visits Washington D.C” is a live improvisation from the first solo tour Jack did with Six Organs of Admittance and Fürsaxa. It’s a raw piece dating from before his debut album.
KURT VILE’s hit singles were the big surprise of the most recent Kraak festival. Classic American road pop and nineties melancholia. The dude likes his Duvel cold. “I Wanted Everything” is an amazing new song in the melodic Vile tradition, containing the lyrical one liner of the year “I ain’t never going to go to work no more”.
U.S. GIRLS is Megan Remy. With a reel-to-reel tapedeck, some delay and distorted vocals she became the Philadelphian queen of ultra lo-fi pop music. Sounds like tunnelvision Kinks after serious car accident caused by too much Orval. With “A day at the races” she delivers the shortest but most mind frying track on this 4-way split.
We never had MEG BAIRD solo on stage here, but we did admire her when she came around with her psych folk friends of Espers. On her own she’s pretty much digging in the same zone: sixties folk, traditionals, hippy love and tea OD. “Wave crashed on rocks” is a cover of British eighties rock unit Felt.
K047
cd
Sold Out/Not available
This CD is produced in association with This Place is Dreaming ,Rethinking and Transfiguring the Sites and Sounds of Brussels, a project for interdisciplinary creations curated by Ive Stevenheydens and presented at a variety of locations between October 15th and 23th, during the argosfestival 2004.
The project brought installations, performances, concerts, lectures and interactive ‘actions’ by Belgian and worldwide (sound) artists, all focused on the city of Brussels. Eighteen of these are included on this CD. This Place is Dreaming is inherently bound to the sonority of the Belgian capital. Heimir Björgulfsson, Yannis Kyriakides, Stilluppsteypa and Olivier Capparos, for example, delved into the interview archives of Brussel behoort ons toe / Bruxelles nous appartient. These ‘remixes’ from stories of the inhabitants of Brussels, telling about their city, urbanization and their relationships with the architecture, the streets and with each other, guarantee a wide range of musical standpoints. Under the title, Brussels Sonic Matter, and together with TMRX, Martiens Go Home, Johan Vandermaelen and Building Transmissions, Francisco Lopez set up a collective sound pool of field recordings from Brussels. For a concert performance, each of the five, according to their own idiosyncratic techniques, used sound material collected by the others. Although some of the Brussels Sonic Matter tracks are based on the sound pool and others are solo works, all of the sounds derive from the sonority of Brussels. aMute has also created a track based on the sounds of everyday life in Brussels. The compilation also offers a view of the working processes of the artists taking part in the project. This is very literally the case with the contributions of Justin Bennett, Angelo Vermeulen, Emilio Lopez-Menchero and Maria Blondeel: their tracks are the result of their studies for their installations and actions for the argosfestival 2004. Finally, This Place is Dreaming comprises not only mutations from the sounds of Brussels. With sounds from other cities and countries, artists Hildegard Westerkamp (India), Mark Bain (Amsterdam), Aki Onda (Paris) and Yuko Nexus6 (Japan and Italy) create a bridge to other atmospheres and cultures.
with: Emilio Lopez-Menchero, Mark Bain, Heimir Björgulfsson, Yannis Kyriakides, Olivier Capparos, Stilluppsteypa, Justin Bennett, aMute, Yuko Nexus6, Hildegard Westerkamp, Johan Vandermaelen, Francisco Lopez, Martiens Go Home, TMRX, Building Transmissions, Maria Blondeel, Angelo Vermeulen, Aki Onda
K042
cd
Sold Out/Not available
Ltd edition from the 2003 fest.
Ltd edition from the 2003 fest. Exclusive/rare tracks from all bands playing being: Numbers, Hellfire, Tuk, Tony Conrad, Hangedup, Denzel und Huhn, Christophe Bailleau, Kiila, Un Caddie Renversé dans l’Herbe, Blutch, Lowfish, Greg Weeks, sunroof! and Joe Cocksucker.
K040
cd
Sold Out/Not available
with James Merle Thomas, Wio, David Grubbs, Jurgen Heckel, Giradini di Miro, Christof Kurzmann, David Sheppard, Overall, a musical journey that takes little persuading to pick you up but drops you off a long, long way from where you started out. DS / The Wire / April 2004
K034
cd
Sold Out/Not available
Ltd edition from the (K-RAA-K)3 festival 2002 with exclusive or rare tracks
Ltd edition from the (K-RAA-K)3 festival 2002 with exclusive or rare tracks from Oren Ambarchi, Ekkehard Ehlers + Joseph Suchy, Toss, Wio, Benjamin Franklin, Twine, John David V, Alog, Main, Vibracathedral Orchestra, It & My Computer and David Grubbs. Specially priced and not going to last very long. Music style ranging from electro, to improvisation, to pop/postrock, glitch, contemporary classical and anything in between. Place your bets now
K029
cd
Sold Out/Not available
with Vote Robot (CAN), Köhn (B), Hans Olo (B), Richard Youngs (UK), Kid 606 (USA), Ovil Bianca (B), Alastair Gallbraith (AUS)
K027
cd
Sold Out/Not available
Cheapo compilation presenting (K-RAA-K)3
Exclusive tracks from present and future labelfriends including: Janek Schaefer (uk), Köhn (b), Ovil bianca (b), Shifts (Nl), Adlib (Ger), Pimmon (Aus), Wio (b), Géographique (b), Portables (b), Es (Fin), 1M54 (b), Vote Robot (Can), Toss (b). 58 minutes of claustrofobian adventures through guitars, turntables, computers, piano’s and anything linking all of this. Specially introduction price
K016
2cd
Sold Out/Not available
This double cd compilation has been in the works for months… It doesn’t only include a cooperation between eight labels, namely (K-RAA-K)3, Ecstatic Peace, BWCD, Swill Radio, Polyamony, Freedom Form ...
But more importantly gives an overview of innovating music coming from the improvisation-guitar-noise scene. Track-lenghts vary from 8 to 24 minutes which makes this different to other compilations. If you’re talking about guitar-improvisation you can’t deny the New Zealand influence… So we thought Flies Inside The Sun (Kranky, Metonymic) and Surface of the Earth (Corpus Hermeticum, Fusetron)might go ahead with their mindblowing feedbacking drones, free drumstyles and total expressions. Also present is Sunroof, Mr. Matthew Bower. Previously he released several hard hitting noise-anthems as Total but keeps the noiselevel down in favour of more quite winterevenings. Those who loved his output on VHF will certainly love this… Another British band is Ashtray Navigations (Siltbreeze, Selfabuse, Diskono etc..).: probably one of the most neglected talents around. His guitar-treatments and field recordings can be recognized from thousands. Another step forward for Mr. Todd. Bradley/Campbell and John Godbert (both Giardia) are responsible for very far-out experiences… This is much complementary to their previous outputs and those who read our personal highlights know these are some of our favourite artists. In the same vein is Dr. Gretchen’s Musical Weightlifting Program: An American project destined to deconstruct all academics about a string quartet. The closing track is from K Salvatore: humming amplifiers with a piano creeping in midway… falling through a ceiling back to some loopy drones. He might be the least known but this certainly puts him on the map of the greatest. It might be wise to know that is the (K-RAA-K)3 edition which shall have a total different package to the other labels. It’s ultra limited and will be a onetime pressing. All tracks are unreleased and unavailable elsewhere.
K009
casstte
Sold Out/Not available
De opvolger van 1/2
Misschien iets toegankelijker dan de voorganger, met andere woorden, meer melodieën en minder noise. Maar toch opnieuw een poging tot een chaotische clash van stijlen. Met bijdragen van Omit (Nieuw-Zeeland), Pluxus (Zweden), de Portables (België), Köhn (België), 70 Gwen Party (Verenigd Koninkrijk), Task (Canada), Tree Sini (Finland), Lethisalofamily (Finland), Kirvasto (Finland), De Fabriek (Nederland), Raumerkndung (Duitsland), Kibri (België)
K004
cassette
Sold Out/Not available
Twaalf bands brengen evenveel exclusieve tracks op dit eerste deel van een internationale compilatie die in het teken staat van een experimentele zoektocht naar ‘geluid’.
De muziek is moeilijk te omschrijven maar dit past perfect binnen het opzet om bekende grenzen te doorbreken. Maar speciaal voor jullie wagen we toch een poging: Neville, Crotty & Sparling, Hex Minora, Piume E Sangue, Delphium, Cosmic Blender, Pil & Flippy dosk, Billy?, Massimiliano Gatti, E.H.E en Moral Codex. Luisteren wie kan luisteren, onze buren hebben zich in elk geval al een heupbreuk op gedanst.
K062
Jul 01, 2010
7 inch
Sold Out/Not available
One year after the ‘Meet the Philly elite’ 7” we finally release a fresh 4-way split. This time Köhn and Alien Radio are trancing deep into the history of synthesizer classics while Peaking Lights and Ducktails have a take on their own pop music.
KÖHN is Jürgen De Blonde. He has been called ‘the godfather of Belgian electronica’. After the double-cd ‘Koen’ from 2002, he started to focus on music for dance and theatre. Last year he made his comeback on wax with ‘We need more space in the cosmos’, an lp full of epic space age compositions. ‘U C I M’ builds on the same vibes: trancy and neo-cosmic. Ulf Schütte plays in Datashock and Phantom Horse, but his musical climaxes are definitely at home when he fools around with his modular synths. ALIEN RADIO’s music follows the tradition of Conny Planck, Delia Derbyshire, Dick Raaijmakers and Ursula Bogner. ‘Gedanke und Ahnung’ is bleepsynthronica sounding like a sketch of a derailed sonic research project. PEAKING LIGHTS are the duo of Indra Dunis (ex-Numbers) and Aaron Coynes. ‘Creatures of day creatures at night’ is pure summer pop. The usual synths and drumloops made place for fuzzy calypso riffing. Dunis’ vocal romanticism sounds sweet as a Brian Wilson song. Sc-fi soft pop! Real Estate, Alex Bleeker & the Freaks, Predator Vision, Parasails… All bands Matt Mondanile is involved in. In the last three years his music went around the world rather quickly, mainly under his DUCKTAILS moniker. His neo-tropic pop music is often linked to a movement that also houses the likes of James Feraro, Dolphins into the Future and a great deal of the Not Not Fun related bands. ‘Sprinter’ is a repetitive melancholic pop song, and about the most ‘indie’ track we heard from Ducktails so far…
Manoeuvers 7inch with exclusive tracks by Rene Hell, Jonas Reinhardt, Jonathan Fitoussi & Bear Bones, Lay Low
Manoeuvers, the new 4-way split in the KRAAK 7” series, offers four short trips through the great cosmic minds of Rene Hell, Jonas Reinhardt, Jonathan Fitoussi and Bear Bones, Lay Low. Although all four artists use analog synthesizers as the prime source for their repetitive, mind expanding compositions they show the broad variety in which retro-futuristic music has evolved in recent years. Hell opens the gates of modern trance meditation with some weirdly pulsating brain candy. It is followed by some eastern vibes in Bear Bones, Lay Low’s track, bringing to mind a Turkish Alan Vega in liquid salvia fields. On the b-side French composer Jonathan Fitoussi injects the cosmic into minimalism with an almost Glassian atmosphere. Kranky-artist Jonas Reinhardt closes the gates again spacing on craftmanship in a slowed down dancey style kraut track with ethnic synth melodies, in the vein of some Sky-releases from the 80s. Four other-dimensional pieces, celebrating the lost sublime. The 7” will be presented at the Manoevers, muziek uit de Kosmos Festival on december 5th in Aalst, Belgium. Artwork by Floris Vanhoof.